Publications

December 2012
Case

Blink Booking

By: William R. Kerr, Magnus Thor Torfason and Alexis Brownell

Rebeca Minguela hopes to create an arbitrage platform, similar to Rocket Internet, that can bring start-up ideas and opportunities to Spain. However, Blink Booking, her first venture and proof of concept, is rocked by a co-founder's breach of confidence and departure.... View Details

Keywords: Clones; Cloning; Rocket Internet; Start-up; Equity Split; Arbitrage; Incubator; Mobile App; Expansion; Spain; Europe; Entrepreneurship; Ethics; Internet and the Web; Information Technology Industry; Accommodations Industry; Travel Industry; Spain; Europe

01 Mar 2024
News

In Harmony

Kim at Seoul’s government-built Hoehyeon “Citizens’ Apartments.” Opened in 1970, it stands as a reminder of a Korea from a very different era. Like so many South Koreans of a certain age, Michael ByungJu Kim (MBA 1990) lives in a country where the past lingers,... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; photographs by Jun Michael Park; private equity; fiction; financial crisis; leadership; Korea

March 2013 (Revised March 2014)
Case

Brazos Partners and the Tri-Northern Exit

By: Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Nathaniel Burbank

Randall Fojtasek, a partner at the Dallas-based Brazos Private Equity Partners, must decide whether now is the time to sell his firm's investment in Tri-Northern Distribution. Brazos, a middle-market leveraged buyout group, created the company two years earlier through... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity Exit; LBO; Leveraged Buyout Transaction; Texas; Security; Brazos; Tri-Northern; Tri-Ed; Northern Video; Private Equity; Partners and Partnerships; Distribution; Leveraged Buyouts; Decision Choices and Conditions; Investment Funds; Financial Services Industry; Distribution Industry; Texas

April 2022
Case

Marsha Simms: Trailblazer in Corporate Law

By: Robin Ely, Boris Groysberg, Colleen Ammerman and Olivia Hull

Follows the journey of lawyer Marsha Simms from her childhood in racially-segregated St. Louis to the upper echelons of the New York legal community. Describes her education, career choices, accomplishments, and setbacks. Highlights significant moments such as her... View Details

March 2021
Case

Yale Investments Office: November 2020

By: Josh Lerner, Jo Tango and Alys Ferragamo

David Swensen and the Investments Office staff must decide whether to continue to allocate the bulk of the university's endowment to illiquid investments—hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, real estate, natural resources—given the impact of the COVID-19... View Details

Keywords: University Endowment; Asset Allocation; Real Estate; Equities; Fixed Income; COVID-19; Asset Management; Private Equity; Venture Capital; Natural Resources; Resource Allocation; Investment; Investment Portfolio; Health Pandemics; Financial Crisis; Financial Services Industry; Real Estate Industry; Energy Industry; Connecticut

December 2012
Article

Defending the Markers of Masculinity: Consumer Resistance to Brand Gender-Bending

By: Jill Avery

I study the Porsche Cayenne SUV launch to ethnographically analyze how men consuming a gendered brand respond to perceived brand gender contamination. Consumers' communal gender work in a Porsche brand community is analyzed to uncover brand gender contamination's... View Details

Keywords: Brands; Brand Building; Brand Equity; Brand Management; Brand Positioning; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Product Marketing; Consumer Behavior; Gender; Identity; Customer Focus and Relationships; Auto Industry; Consumer Products Industry

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May 2012
Supplement

Brennan Warranty Corporation (B)

By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff

Keywords: Private Equity; Corporate Finance; Entrepreneurial Finance; Mergers And Acquisitions

Teaching Interest

Overview

By: John F. Batter

As as Senior Lecturer I teach the EC course Law, Management and Entrepreneurship (cross-listed in the General Management and Entrepreneurial Management Units) in both the Fall and Spring semesters. While I have retired from my public and private company litigation... View Details

Keywords: Fiduciary Duty; Securities; Private Equity; Entrepreneurship; Mergers; Law

02 Feb 2015
News

Wall Street Is Not Silicon Valley

Keywords: private equity; entrepreneurship; Wall Street; work-life balance; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

November 2019 (Revised June 2020)
Case

Shiseido Acquires Drunk Elephant

By: Jill Avery

On October 7, 2019, the Shiseido Group announced that it would acquire clean skincare brand Drunk Elephant for $845 million, a valuation of 8.5 times sales. Did Shiseido pay too much or too little for this brand asset? How much was the Drunk Elephant brand worth and... View Details

Keywords: Personal Care; Startup; Brand Equity; Brand Valuation; Brand Value; Brand Storytelling; Brand Management; Brands and Branding; Valuation; Marketing; Marketing Strategy; Mergers and Acquisitions; Entrepreneurship; Business Startups; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Consumer Products Industry; United States; Japan

January 2019
Teaching Note

Innova Capital: The Transition

By: Josh Lerner, Nori Gerardo Lietz and Terrence Shu

Teaching Note for HBS No. 813-064. View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Succession Planning; Finance; Eastern Europe; Poland

2025
Working Paper

Generative AI Use by Capital Market Information Intermediaries: Evidence from Seeking Alpha

By: Mark Bradshaw, Chenyang Ma, Benjamin Yost and Yuan Zou

We study the use of generative AI for firm-specific financial analysis on the Seeking Alpha platform. We find that, after the initial launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, the share of AI-generated articles rose sharply to 13.4% of all articles, then declined in late... View Details

Keywords: Generative Ai; Seeking Alpha; Equity Research; Large Language Models; Gpt; AI and Machine Learning; Information Publishing; Financial Markets

SSRN

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October 2019 (Revised June 2022)
Case

Toys 'R' Us: Come Buy My Toys

By: Nori Gerardo Lietz, Erica Segall, Alejandro Botto and Terrence Shu

Keywords: Private Equity; Retail; Finance; Leveraged Buyout; Leverage; Leveraged Buyouts; Bankruptcy

March 2014 (Revised September 2015)
Case

ACA and the Union Bank Acquisition

By: Josh Lerner and Nathaniel Burbank

Okey Enelamah is the CEO of the African Capital Alliance (ACA), a private equity firm based in Nigeria. ACA has spent more than a year arranging a $500 million consortium bid to acquire and recapitalize Union Bank, Nigeria's sixth largest bank. Several weeks before the... View Details

Keywords: Nigeria; African Capital Alliance; Africa; Bank Capital; ACA; Union Bank; Development Finance Institutions; Capital Alliance Private Equity; Private Equity; Central Banking; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Nigeria; Africa

August 2014 (Revised March 2015)
Case

Molycorp: Issuing the 'Happy Meal' Securities (B)

By: Benjamin C. Esty and E. Scott Mayfield

Molycorp, the Western hemisphere's only producer of rare earth minerals, was in the middle of a $1 billion capital expansion in its effort to become a vertically integrated supplier of rare earth minerals, oxides, and metals. After reporting lower than expected... View Details

2013
Chapter

Gender Bender Brand Hijacks and Consumer Revolt: The Porsche Cayenne Story

By: Jill Avery

Throughout history, marketers have created gendered brands, creating their brands and the stories they crafted about them in their advertising to appeal either to men or to women. Gendered brands deliver value to consumers, and therefore, deliver value to marketers.... View Details

Keywords: Consumer Behavior; Brands; Brand Positioning; Brand Equity; Brand Management; Advertising Campaigns; Customer Focus and Relationships; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Marketing Strategy; Auto Industry; Consumer Products Industry

September 2012 (Revised January 2013)
Case

Martin Smith: July 2012

By: Josh Lerner and Felda Hardymon

Martin Smith, a recently hired general partner at a Brazil-based venture capital firm, must decide among three deal opportunities. Each has different strengths (management, market, and technology) but each has its own weaknesses as well. He must also consider each deal... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Deal Choice; Venture Capital; Investments; Career Management; Management Teams; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost vs Benefits; Personal Development and Career; Financial Services Industry; Brazil

March 2014 (Revised February 2015)
Case

Loki Capital Management

By: Joseph B. Fuller, Shikhar Ghosh and Matthew Preble

In December 2013, Michael Kane was preparing to launch his start-up's first hedge fund. While pleased with the development of the business, he wanted to address a few lingering issues before going any further. He debated whether or not to fire the company's chief... View Details

Keywords: Hedge Fund; Hedge Funds; Equity Split; Fundraising; Investor Clientele; Team Building; Human Resource Management; Human Capital; Human Resources; Equity; Financial Services Industry; United States